I'm a big fan of Irish whiskey in fact. One of my favourite whiskeys is Jameson. The colour of the bottle, the smoothness of it's taste and it's triple distilling process means that a wee dram of this is very enjoyable – even if you're not a big whiskey drinker.

The fact I love this brand meant I was incredibly excited to learn about Jameson's newest campaign utilising a limited edition bottle and some very smart use of NFC technology. Two of my biggest loves – whiskey and tech, finally brought together in one awesome product launch.

Jamesons have created a unique and memorable product by incorporating a custom designed limited edition bottle, with artwork by the Irish artist Steve McCarthy. By integrating NFC into the label customers can easily interact with the Jameson brand with just a tap of their phone.

By driving people to a specific web address when they tap on the bottle, customers are able to find out more about the history of Jameson, their different whiskey ranges and some very tasty recipes.

Easitag CEO Warwick Debney had this to say about the campaign “Incorporating NFC into the bottle was a very smart move on Jameson's part as it opens up their brand to a whole new level of interactivity with the customer – particularly in the younger, more tech savvy market.”

“By combining their bottle with NFC technology they can drive people to a specially designed website to extend the customer’s experience with their brand and prompt them into further action – making the lifecycle of the customer experience much longer, richer and more fulfilling” he says.

This is a great example of brands making smart decisions with NFC technology but many companies aren’t aware of what NFC is or what it can do, so we’re here to help Australian businesses ride the technological wave of NFC combined with branding and marketing to help their businesses grow.

What is NFC technology?

NFC stands for Near Field Communication. It’s a technology that’s been around for many years but many people are only just becoming aware of it. In fact you’re probably using NFC technology already and don’t even know it.

If you’ve used your credit card to tap and pay (sometimes called Paywave, Tap-and-go or contactless payments), have a travel card like a Go Card, Opal Card, Myki, Metrocard, etc or use a security card attached to a lanyard to enter your office or apartment then you’re using NFC technology.

NFC works by transmitting small amounts of data between an NFC label, sticker or chip and an NFC enabled phone or NFC reader. NFC enabled phones can receive data from NFC labels that can take the form of website URLs or instructions for a phone (like turning on Bluetooth, sending a text message or enabling the do-not-disturb feature on your phone).

What is NFC used for?

As you can see from our Jameson example above, as a marketer you’re only limited by your imagination on how you use NFC tags to promote your product or business.

There’s a whole range of uses for NFC tags and below are just a few ways that people and companies are using them:-

• Drive customers to a website
• Drive customers to a promotion
• Drive customers to enter a competition
• Pair your bluetooth devices with a single tap
• Automatically connect laptops to your phone’s hotspot
• Setup timers for your kitchen
• Enable others to connect to your work’s wifi
• Play certain playlists on your phone

Here are some examples of how you can place NFC labels:-

• Add them to your business cards for additional information
• Add them to promotional posters
• Add them to products for additional product information
• Add them to products for instructional information
• Add them to products for warranty information

As you can see there are lots of different ways that companies and individuals can use NFC tags to automate certain tasks and make their day easier. I was talking to someone the other day and they even have one set up in a discreet area on their desk that sets up their phone’s ringtone to go off 40 seconds after tapping the tag. This enables them to get out of longs chats with co-workers if they have a lot of work to do – very clever!

Taking NFC to the next level

Here at Easitag we’re interested in helping companies break boundaries and we enjoy seeing our customers take their marketing to the next level. This is why we’ve created a range of Smart Labels that can help companies promote their products and brands in new and interesting ways.

On top of this we’ve added a new exciting layer to NFC Smart labels – the EasiView Dashboard is an online area where companies can log in and see how and where customers are interacting with your products.

Imagine running a series of smart posters at bus-stops with NFC label integration, but then being able to see what locations are getting the most taps, which version of the poster or call to action is more popular and what marketing messages or areas are driving the highest conversions.

The EasiView Dashboard enables companies to see where people are tapping on their NFC Smart Labels and can be set up for multiple campaigns and products.

“This dashboard gives companies an amazing insight into their customers’ behaviour,” says Brad Dwyer, Business Development Manager for Easitag.

“Not only does it show the geographic locations of customers interacting with NFC labels, it can break down your campaigns into products lines or variations of labels. This gives business and marketers a whole new level of control, accountability and metrics that no-one has seen in Australia, it’s exciting stuff!”

The EasiView Dashboard opens up a whole new level of NFC marketing to companies and business in Australia and is quickly becoming a hot item in the FMCG marketers arsenal.

We’re only just beginning to see companies and brands identify the reach and potential of NFC as it becomes widespread – particularly in the Android phone landscape. Customers are now expecting more than just ‘another product’ from their favourite brands. They’re expecting something more, something new and something exciting and NFC is exactly the type of technology that provides that solution.

If you’d like to find out more about how Easitag can assist your business with integrating NFC into your product range, please call us on 1800 077 375 or contact us today.